Quota solution for Roma refugees from Kosovo demanded - Society for Threatened Peoples sees Germany called on

The 8th April is World Roma Day and the Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV) demands a quota solution for the Roma refugees from Kosovo who have been living for years in Germany and their German-speaking children who have grown up in Germany . " Germany in particular has the duty to offer protection to the Roma who are threatened with racist persecution in their home-countries”, said the chair of the German section of the STP, Tilman Zülch, on Wednesday. "As a consequence of the holocaust Germany has taken 200,000 Jewish citizens from the former Soviet Union . Since hundreds of thousands of Sinti and Roma also fell victim to the holocaust Germany must also finally put out a helping hand to the members of this ethnic group.”

The STP criticised sharply the present practice of the German authorities which deport to Kosovo in cloak-and-dagger operations the Roma families who have lived for years with temporary permits of residence. Separation is often the practice – with married couples, siblings or parents from their children. Deportation means for children, sick persons and the elderly "transportation into nothingness”. The children and young people who have been born and grown up here, who speak German as their native tongue, are faced with a future lacking any perspective.

Research carried out on the spot by the STP show that the deported persons vegetate in Kosovo in refugee camps and ramshackle temporary accommodation. The Roma do not even have the chance of finding casual jobs. Medical care is quite inadequate or unaffordable for the members of these minorities.

The expulsion and flight of about 120,000 of the former 150,000 Roma from Kosovo in 1999 was also watched by a Germany which simply took no action. The members of this coloured minority were chased out of the country by extremist Albanians under the eyes of the Nato soldiers who had marched into Kosovo. 70 of their 75 estates and town quarters were destroyed. The Roma were mishandled, tortured, abducted, murdered or driven out.